North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s wife speaks at pregnancy center that offers ‘abortion pill reversal’

RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) — Abortion has remained a hot topic in the 2024 North Carolina election cycle, particularly after state lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto in order to pass a law restricting abortions in the state .

Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein has run numerous ads attacking his opponent, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, and heavily focused on his past comments and stance on abortion.

Robinson’s campaign has not come out in support of a total abortion ban in North Carolina. However, when asked at rallies, he has said he would like to go further than the current 12-week restriction . Recently, he has spoken less on the social issues that catapulted him into political stardom, which he said was because he feels that the Republican-led legislature in North Carolina has “won” on those issues.

Recently, Robinson pushed back on recent ads that feature him making statements about abortion including women not being “responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

“That was about a 30-minute, 20-minute talk where we talked about the irresponsibility of young men being paramount in that situation,” Robinson said in a video obtained by CBS17 . “That’s why they only play that much of the entire thing. They try to make it look as bad as possible because I truly am opposed to abortion as birth control. That is what we were referring to.”

Despite apparent reticence to discuss abortion on the campaign trail, he has said that he would “partner with crisis pregnancy centers” to address abortion in North Carolina.

Recently, Robinson’s wife has toured crisis pregnancy centers around the state, including one perpetuating what physicians call an unproven health practice.

Marvin Pregnancy Center

Yolanda Hill, Robinson’s wife, visited Marvin Pregnancy Center on July 9 for an event described by the center on Facebook as “ Conversations of the Heart .” The center, which is a satellite office of Help Pregnancy Center in Monroe, shared photos to Facebook of Hill speaking at the event and standing alongside Help Pregnancy Center Executive Director and Founder Tara Quinn.

The Marvin Pregnancy Center opened in April. It is described on its website as “Christ-centered, pro-life, community-focused ministry to women and men who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy or in a difficult pregnancy situation. We offer free and confidential pregnancy services and spiritual resources to help them choose life for their child. We exist to share Christ and show His love in a tangible way to our community. We do not offer contraception, STI/STD testing, abortions, or referral for abortions.”

The center’s homepage also asks, “Have you taken the abortion pill and regret your decision?” with a link directing to information on “abortion pill reversal.”

Abortion ‘reversal’

Help Pregnancy Center claims on its website that the abortion pill mifepristone can be “reversed” by taking progesterone, a medication that supports menstruation and the early stages of a pregnancy.

“If you have taken the abortion pill, and regret your decision, contact us … as soon as possible,” it writes, also directing people to abortionpillreversal.com .

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , however, describes “so-called abortion ‘reversal’ procedures” as “unproven and unethical.”

ACOG writes, “Claims regarding abortion ‘reversal’ treatment are not based on science and do not meet clinical standards. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) ranks its recommendations on the strength of the evidence and does not support prescribing progesterone to stop a medication abortion.”

The State of California sued two groups perpetuating the idea of abortion reversal in 2023.

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance – not lies and misinformation,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said of the lawsuit.

What are crisis pregnancy centers?

Crisis pregnancy centers, sometimes called pregnancy centers or pregnancy resource centers, are facilities that advertise themselves as pregnancy care centers, typically providing pregnancy tests or ultrasounds but often little to no significant medical care. Some facilities, like the one in Monroe, do offer a limited amount of medical services in addition to pregnancy counseling.

Critics have long slammed crisis pregnancy centers for deceptive practices, with ACOG writing that these centers often “represent themselves as legitimate reproductive health care clinics providing care for pregnant people but actually aim to dissuade people from accessing certain types of reproductive health care, including abortion care and even contraceptive options.”

The goal of the centers, which some advertise more openly than others according to the ACOG report, is to discourage people from accessing abortion services, often through medical misinformation about the process.

They often appear in web searches for abortion care, despite not providing any abortion care or referrals for abortion care, according to the ACOG, and with only 38% of them displaying their anti-abortion agenda on their homepage, they say that this can mislead women seeking healthcare.

Some of these centers even falsely represent “the facility as a legitimate health care clinic that offers comprehensive and unbiased reproductive health care by selecting names similar to those of legitimate clinics, setting up near reproductive health clinics, and misrepresenting nonmedical staff and volunteers as clinicians by having them wear lab coats and perform ultrasounds.”

Republican Lieutenant Governor hopeful Hal Weatherman has also toured a similar center in the past few weeks, visiting Wayne Pregnancy Center alongside Cry Freedom Missions , an anti-human trafficking non-profit.

Recently, during an appearance on FOX8’s Swing State , Weatherman responded to a statement about how Pew polling indicates most North Carolinians support legal abortion, saying, “What would be interesting is if some way you could supernaturally poll those 98 million children who were terminated from ’73 on, what percentage do you think would choose life? I’ve never seen a pro-choice advocate who didn’t have a mother who chose life.”

Weatherman went on to say, “I want these emergency pregnancy clinics, that we can provide choices to the women where they can choose life.”

He added that he wants to see “wraparound services for mothers in times of crisis where we provide the neo-natal care that they need, the financial assistance they need, the love and support.”

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